I have a slipped disc, or herniation at my L4-5.
It was at my second year of college, I was doing some weight-training for the upcoming tournament. My senior asked me to walk the pitch while carrying him on my back, and it was too much for me at that moment, but I just clenched my teeth and carried on. (yep, now I know I was driving from my jaw)
The consequences came after the training.
It started with a little burning sensation at my low back, and then it progressed. I started to notice strength was leaving my leg, and even some bowel syndrome occurred.
I was fucked, and also scared, the match was just days away.
Desperately I went for my professor, she told me my disc was herniated and did some manipulation on my lumbar spine. It improved, and she told me to sleep on my stomach while constantly contract my core(transverse abdominis). In the end she put a strap of kinesio tape on my spine.
Miraculously I went for the tournament, though we didn’t get far.
But the thing was that even though I no longer felt weak or ant at my lower leg, neither could I felt my back.
Through constantly contracting TrA, my Erector spinae and Qudratus lumborum also tightened to protect the “injured disc”
And I thought that was the price must be paid for the rest of my life.
Last year, months after meeting the young Doug through USB, I had an onset of symptoms of a herniated disc.
I was activating myself, and just after rubbing psoas point, and started to breathe, I felt something clicked behind me.
Suddenly all those unpleasant symptoms and sensation flushed through my body, and I was in a panic.
Instead of finding the tape to fix my spine, I stayed lying and continued to breathe.
After about 5-10 minutes the symptoms were decreasing, and I cautiously stood up and walk. Pain was there, but accompanied it was a sensation I haven’t felt for years – a sense of freedom at my lower back.
Just like my ankle, since something was changing, I just kept going, kept breathing and activating my body.
Now, a year after the incident, I find my low back the most flexible maybe in the past 5years, I can feel my spine bouncing during walking in a good day.
The pain is almost gone, only when I work for a whole day standing or shooting for more than a hundred will it return with mild symptom, and usually resolved in hours or days.
Activation is a process to reconnect, and in order to do that one must let go first, both in the body and in the mind. Once the restrictions are gone, the healing can begin, and the potential of the amazing body can be explored.
I have unglued my lower back, also unglued my understanding toward myself and the body.